A promotion for NY Times’ Williams

The following excerpt announcement was sent out by the editor of The New York Times book review Pamela Paul:

I am delighted to announce that John Williams, the daily books editor on the Books desk, is being promoted to assistant editor. In his new role, John will edit and manage our talented crew of staff book critics, steering the way in which The Times covers books both in terms of daily reviews and through a range of enterprise and collaborative projects, such as the new Close Reads series on poetry, the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years and other ambitious, wide-ranging essays and interactives.

John, one of the best literary critics around, will continue to write book reviews for the daily pages. He will also continue to co-pilot the Book Review Podcast, where he plays a vital role in shaping the program and is a frequent contributor and occasional interviewer. John also plays a part in much of the desk’s other work, editing news and features (as well as writing them) and collaborating with editors at the Book Review, where he also contributes reviews.

It seems like both yesterday and a million years ago, but it’s actually been almost exactly a decade since John first joined The Times in that then new-fangled but now outmoded role of producer. Before coming to The Times, John was an admired and respected name in the book world as the creator and editor of The Second Pass, an online book review. Before starting The Second Pass, John was a book editor at HarperCollins; he’s also worked at The Dallas Morning News and was an intern at Harper’s magazine.

Please join me in congratulating John on his new role.

Pamela